This Day in Walter O’Malley History:

  • The entire Yomiuri Giants baseball team arrives in Vero Beach, Florida from Tokyo, Japan to train at Dodgertown. It is the first time the entire team and not just selected players and officials are invited by Walter O’Malley to visit the spring training base. O’Malley even had dining room menus printed in Japanese for the occasion.

  • The first non-baseball sporting event at Dodger Stadium is the 1st Dodger Stadium Sports Car Races in the vast parking lot which is held on the weekend of March 2-3. Two bleacher seating areas were established in the parking lot and 11,500 fans were in attendance. Walter O’Malley sought creative ways to utilize Dodger Stadium in a limited fashion on non-baseball event days.

  • Walter O’Malley objects to the Dodger schedule in the National League for 1963, which had his club playing on 27 consecutive days (a total of 28 games). He said, “This type of schedule not only is ridiculous, it’s absolutely shocking.” In 1962, the schedule went from 154 games to 162 games. “I think the season should be lengthened by a week, if that’s what it will take to make it workable. The efficiency and expertness of the players are reduced under such circumstances. These packed schedules also cause irritability, not only in the playing ranks, but in the press and front office, as well.” Bob Hunter, The Sporting News, March 2, 1963

  • Ben Hoberman, Vice President and General Manager of KABC Radio AM 790 in Los Angeles, thanks Walter O’Malley for participating in the station’s “Personal Portrait” series, hosted by Loren Peterson. The “father of talk radio,” Hoberman writes, “Your frank and sincere discussion of personal and public life made it indeed a memorable broadcast for all of us. Mr. Peterson joins me in saying ‘thank you’ for your spirit of co-operation.”

  • Dodger Stadium is the backdrop used in the filming of a Nash automobile commercial. Anderson-McConnell Advertising Agency, Inc. of Hollywood handled the contractual arrangements with the Dodgers, paying a rental fee, for power to illuminate the large outfield message board and for the message board operator.

  • Venerable columnist John Hall reports in The Sporting News that “baseball has moved into the computer age. A Los Angeles-based organization called ‘Computicket’ already has organized a national agency which will make it possible for old dad to pick up the family tickets at the nearest neighborhood supermarket or department store...Ralphs markets has contracted to house the first string of computicket booths in its chain of stores located throughout Southern California. The Dodgers of Walter O’Malley will be the first to join the operation. Computicket first rents a 360-40 computer — the master brain — from IBM. The brain is placed in a central location where it is constantly fed with the latest ticket data of all clients...the master computer is linked by leased telephone line wire to the network of Computicket locations throughout the area. Each computicket booth will feature a machine complete with buttons and its own mini printing press...You also pay on the spot. Two quarts of milk...butter...a pound of bacon...loaf of bread...and two tickets to the Dodger-Cardinal game.” John Hall, The Sporting News, March 2, 1968

  • Bob Hunter, columnist for the Los Angeles Herald-Examiner leads his notes about a rumor floating around Dodgertown in Vero Beach, Florida, but denied by Walter O’Malley. Hunter writes, “There was a story rattling around the halls of Dodgertown that Walter O’Malley had received a call from President (Richard) Nixon about taking the club on a good will trip to China. ‘I have not heard from the President on this,’ reported O’Malley. ‘But I wish I would.’” Bob Hunter, Los Angeles Herald-Examiner, March 2, 1973